An overview:

My plans for my project

In this project I wanted to explore how women have become more empowered in themselves through tattoos, and how they help people become more confident in their own skin. Within the scope of empowerment, It will relate to themes of finding freedom from the pressures of society and counterculture

Overall, i feel i was SUCCESSFUL in representing this theme across my work through choice of imagery and the range of sources I used to influence my design choices.

Over my time on this course, I have worked in a range of methods, including digital (indesign, photoshop, procreate, etc) and traditional, physical media. I have enjoyed and created the most interesting products when using a combination of these methods, for example in the lyric book project I have shown below.

When creating work in this project, I will therefore use a combintion of different media types as well as working in a more illustrative approach.

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Action Plan

Action Plan: Updated

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reflecting on my action plan…

Initially,I stuck closely to my action plan. This helped me to work in a structured way throughout the project and as a result i feel i created a high standard of work in a short period of time.

I ended up changing my plan for what i wanted my final piece to look like half way through as i ended up approaching more of my work with traditional mediums than i originally intended. As such, I decided to change my plan for week 7 drastically, as i decided the motion graphic and sound elements were no longer useful to my intended outcomes.

Similarly, I also didn’t make my work into posters but moreso into digital content posts.

To be more Cultural sensitivity, i decided to use temporary tattoo sheets instead of hennah as they have religious and CULTURAL implications I did not want to bring into my work.

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Personal Significance Of This Project

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Hobbies/Interests: Tattoos have always been synonymous with aspects of culture such as the punk scene in music or historically among sailors.

Purchasing Habitis: I would like to try to encourage people who online shop to engage in my project as the zine will be presented on a digital social media page.

Location: This project will be mostly based on the culture of London’s tattoo scene. Although this will be similar to worldwide consumers, it will be mainly targeted towards people in London

Ethical Design

Manifesto

Customer

Profile

This was a way of making sure my project would be considerate of all people. I focused on accesiblity and appeasing the community that I was representing in my work as they would also inform the target demographic for my work.

Age: people over the age of 18 as these are people who can engage in the tattoo scene legally in the uk

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I highlighted key influences to my work such as historical figures and periods of tattooing.

The first slide is of berber women and copies of tattoos I drew to highligh common shapes found in these designs. In the second slide, I demonstrated one method of primary research i intended to use to collect material for my project.

In my pecha kucha presentation, I also highlighted some influential people in my chosen field of women in the tattoo industry. Jessie knight was england’s first tattoo artist, which helps to encompass my theme of empowerment as working this job would not only give her a creative outlet but also financial freedoms. The 20th century model, Betty broadbent, was also influential to my work as she competed in beauty pagents and made the image of tattoos on women more widespread, helping to reduce the stygma around it.

Possible outcomes for my project:

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Primary

Research

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During my visit to the V&A, i was most interested by the sculptures. Their shapes and form was interesting, specifically when it depicted the female body. In my focus on tattoos, there is great importance to how the designs fit and flow on the human body. So studying masters of Anatomy was a good reference for my work and how I should focus on accurately portraying the lines of human bodies

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This Gallery featured immersive EXHIBITIONS, featuring soundscapes and moving video elements. This was interesting as a viewer as the ENCOMPASSING experience made it more impactful to me as a viewer of the work. This idea of creating a sensory experience alongside my work is something that I would be interested in exploring for my final major project as i feel it would create a more poignant connection between my intended message and anyone who viewed my work.

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The Now Gallery hosted an exhibition that allowed artists to anonymously submit a 7” cover design.

These images are examples of the ones I spent the most time looking at, I found these to be visually impactful because their level of detail and distinctive illustrative styles. Each design’s composition is well thought out, especially in relation to how the shapes and imarery created flow and movement. The Black and white image invite the viewer to follow the circle around the piece by having the hands and birds beak point around it. The way the other two images are drawn has many lines in the background that direct your eyes across the piece and subtly point to the focal point of the work.

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These designs were less interesting to me, although I thought they were all well executed, they were not as clearly synonymous with the song they aimed to represent.

The simple shapes and clean lines of the middle made the composition feel refined, however I feel it also gave a clinical feeling to the work that didn’t emulate any of the songs. In contrast, the piece on the right is very emotive with shapes and colour, however I struggled to understand its more abstracted forms.

From reflecting on these styles of works, I Decided that I am more drawn to illustrative works with more details. As such, In my FMP, I want to focus on incorporating lots of detailed drawings into my outcomes.

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Cultural context:

I visited a tattoo studio in london in order to collect photos of local tattoo subculture. By physically visiting, I got a more rounded picture of the scene. Aspects such as the interior design of the studio and the bright, colourful bottles of ink were intriging to me as they were in contrast to the sombre, dark imagary often associated with tattoo studios in my interviews with peers, who described them as “intimidating”

I photographed elements that interested me including how the ink interacts when in water compared to how it pools and collects around the needle and skin.

Audio REcording: while here, i took an audio recording of the sounds of tattoo machines, I thought these could be used in a soundscape

I researched traditional tribal tattoos such as the Berber women of Morocco who used their tattoos to convey status. They were apart of the local witchcraft practises and were in some cases sigils meant to protect the body from evil spirits from entering the body, which is why they were often located around openings on the body such as mouths. This idea is echoed in the ceremony and traditions used while the tattoos were being done, the act of penetrating the skin was a ritualistic ceremony and was a way of purifying the skin. However,

with the spread of Islam across the country, this idea was reversed. Tattoos are seen as Haram as they prevent water from touching the skin during the ritualistic purification, Wudu. This was coupled with a negative image that came about as a result of French colonisation. The French conquest of Morocco came about in 1907, and by 1912 France had control of the country. During their two decade rule, they set up "Quartiers réservés" where they regulated prostitution and outside of this “maisons de tolérance” or brothels ran for European clientele. Many women were forced to work in these districts, one example being Bousbir where 37% of the women had been arrested and brought there for illicit prostitution [1]. This is where Berber tattoos began to be associated with sex-work and immorality.

In my work, this research has made me pay attention to the placement of tattoos especially around openings on the body.

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American Traditional Tattoos

& their Depictions of women

The first common spread of tattooing in western society was on themen in Captain James Cook’s crew who used them as momentums of their travels.

Tattoos remained for those outside of the usual SOCIETAL pressures, namely homeless people, circus workers and most well-known SAILORS.

Tattoo artists such as “sailor Jerry” becam to work in stles with bold lines and bright colours. Initially it was mostly nautical imagery but with the spread of this style, it became more synonymous with any ‘counterculture’ such as punks. This is when imagery became more sexualised or violent.

This was my initial attempt at working in this style, however I ended up remaking this drawing as the colour blending (especially in the hair) became muddy and was not smooth enough.

To remedy this, I started to remake the drawing but used a selection tool and blurring tool to make seamless colour transitions.

I feel as though this kept the range of colours more brightly packed into the design while maintaining a cohesive look in the piece.

This image was overall a good experiment into a style of drawing I was not very familiar with. Doing this helped me to refine my portrait skills as well as trying to improve my digital art skills. This will help me when I draw any other illustrations for my FMP.

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1. When did you get your first tattoo, describe the experience briefly:

i was scared. it was my first time away from my parents for a prolonged period of time - my first machine tattoo. and i hadn't told them. I was travelling in Europe with my best mate and it was our first day in Budapest having spent the morning traveling there - i remember getting food and then instantly throwing it up - as soon as i went in i was calm, it felt easy and pretty painless, my friend was way more nervous during but it was so much chiller than I had anticipated

2. Did you feel comfortable your first time visiting a tattoo shop? If you did not, what made the experience uncomfortable.

i did feel comfortable, scared but comfortable - i didn't speak the language and the currency was confusing but I didn't feel uncomfortable

3. When booking to get a tattoo, what do you look for in both the artist and shop?

I look mostly for a social media presence - sounds weird but it shows wide appreciation for both the artist and the work - it allows comments on the work from the one being tattooed also. allowing images of both fresh and healed- it also allows me to understand better what they are like and their style

4. Why did you choose each design of your tattoos?

my designs were on aesthetic purposes- i chose one as it was in the artists preferred style and i had thought it looked cool, similarly with the other, it was a flash and i liked it (she had also tattooed one of my favourite artists at the time)

5. Did the addition of your tattoos change how you view your body? do you feel more confident since getting tattooed?

I have had issues surrounding the way my body looks since i can remember - getting increasingly worse after recovering from the worst part of depression bringing with me some pretty gnarly scars - while they're healed now and i have accepted that they are a part of me, before i wouldn't even wear short sleeves. at 16 i gave myself my first visible stick and poke on my arm, it was bad and patchy but it made me feel more confident- it was the whole idea that if I already have permanent markings on my arms, i might as well make them pretty - you know? with each, i feel more like my own person, like I have become more and more just me, its weird but it also means i cant go on the run, but i can also hide it and be completely 'natural' and sometimes i even forget they're there because they're not in my eye-line but i think they're pretty cool and so does my mum

Artist’s flash sheets

Found the design online

Were you intimidated your first time in a tattoo shop?

8/17 (47%) - YES

Although this information is informative to my project, the sample size is not the most reliable as I got fellow university students to answer so it is not diverse enough to fully represent the wider population. For example, 16 of the individuals were in the age range 18-20.

Why People got their tattoo Designs

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How These Will Inform My Work:

from this survey, i was able to collect a range of quotes and emotions to express in my work. Both the interview and the survey brought up the importance of aesthetics in my project, so i will research a diverse range of tattoo aesthetics , including in tattoo parlours themselves, to help contextualise my creations.

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Key imagery and themes I want to use…

Practical

Work

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